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Tom Petsinis’ The French Mathematician (Walker & Co, 1998) is a biographical novel showing the fateful journey of the gifted, 19th-century French mathematics genius Evariste Galois in his voice. The young mathematics student narrates the events, and his circumstances, leading to the duel that would cost him his life. We see Galois struggling with his…

“Gimme my bag!” Steve tried to yell at the group of four, the Bully Boys as they were called at the school. Mitch, the oldest and biggest of the gang looked mockingly at Steve, who was trying hard not to show his fear, and then at his gang. Then he laughed aloud and said, “Sure…

How does it feel to learn you are about to end—that you will never be here anymore? And how does it feel when you know it while standing for well over a hundred years? That’s how long I have been here—through so many winters, summers, springs, and falls—nurturing creatures big and small for years and…

A picture is worth a thousand words, so by corollary, pictures can have the impact of a thousand words. Perhaps it best manifests when art engages in politics or religion. The recent incident of outrage following a “sex painting” as political commentary on South African political scene is a case of interest. The controversy is…

One might think of creative writing as a gradual process of mastering an art. It’s essentially movement from scratch to perfection. But if you try to make a leap to perfection, chances are you might get a stumble. Many writers think for hours and hours about a smashing start for a piece, a story or…

Do great works of art find timeless appreciation? This is so interesting a question. Saying that great works of art find appreciation in all times and places is like making a huge claim which is hard to verify until you have thousands of years of life to see what works really endure the test of…

Daniel Goleman in his interesting book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception ingeniously draws the relation between repetition and skewing of attention to relieve anxiety. He quotes Freud on the topic as: “The penalty for repression is repetition.” In the context of psychological anxiety, it implies that in times of crises, we resort…

by Max Skinwood “If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute—and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” This part of Shylock’s speech from the late 16th century Shakespearean play…

Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997) is a sci-fi film set in future in a society where children conceived under supervision of the state are considered genetically fit for filling important roles in workplaces, termed “valid”, while those conceived without genetic manipulation are considered “invalid” and are deprived of lucrative opportunities. The film’s protagonist Vincent Freeman (Ethan…

“LIVE spelled backwards is EVIL”, says the publicity tag of the movie The Spring (David Jackson, 2000). Now that sounds witty, probably even ridiculous. The movie is somewhat slack, though a freelance writer for a protagonist is something that would make me watch it with interest (and “Dale Cooper” Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks fame).…

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